Mount San Jacinto

As a child, waking up to the smell of my Dad’s pancakes or my Mom’s dan-bing meant that I was off to a good morning. Since going off to college, morning routines have become a lot different: rushing out the door with a smoothie in the hand and a half-eaten apple in the other, running towards the bus stop to catch the next upcoming bus, and praying that the bus won’t skip our stop so I can get to class on time.

Anyways, I just thought of this because going away for college means mornings are way different-no Twinkie to come and greet me, no hot breakfast waiting for me, or even just the comfort of being close to family. Makes me all nostalgic thinking of this now, but definitely love waking up to this pleasant view of Mom packing lunches for our hiking trip, Dad eating his toast and PB, and Twinkie waiting eagerly for crumbs/ banana&PB (only if he’s lucky).

A simpe, delicious veggie scramble and leftover butternut squash from the night before.

Taking on the San Jacinto Wilderness-yay for dog-friendly hiking trails!

Well, are you coming or not humans??

Since Twinkie loves taking the lead, it’s only natural that he goes with Dad since they both love rushing to the front. Must be some alpha male thing.

This picture makes me laugh-if Twinkie gets thirsty he usually just likes to eat grass, but since that’s not available, he just started eating the snow. After a while, my dad had to collect fresh, clean snow and feed it to Twinkie from his hands. True love.

Precious siblings.

Hurry up!!

From here, we trekked our way through the snow. Literally, the entire path was just covered in snow and I had quite the miserable time slipping every 2 seconds because my running shoes didn’t have a good grip.

Mom luckily had her hiking stick.

Ok, seriously need a break. You can probably see here how the entire hiking trail is all snow-we passed by a couple who said they stopped halfway and came back because they weren’t wearing the right shoes (neither were we), but my dad is a stranger to backing down, so naturally we kept going.

WHEWWW. The best sight to see after miles of slipping and cold feet.

Always believe in Dad. If you’ve seen my pictures from Gaviota Peak, you probably know that my dad will continue to push forward no matter what anyone else says (and if he doesn’t really know where he’s going), but somehow it always leads to the most beautiful viewpoints.

We made it to the top!! YOOOHOOOOO!!!

Unreal.

The smile of a victor. Proudly showing off her hiking stick.

I love my family.

Also Twinkie looks absolutely adorable sitting right at the edge of the cliff (looking at this picture makes me nervous still though, because that was a HUGE cliff.)

Twinkie decided to climb up these massive borders to get to the top of the cliff, but realized his silly mistake later when it took three of us to bring him down because some intense rock climbing was involved to get up that high.

I almost feel like I’m in a Big Bear Mountain ski trail pamphlet.

Nearly 10 miles later, after hiking (what we believe to be) Tahquitz Peak, we headed home for a big dinner and rest.

BUT. Mount San Jacinto couldn’t keep us away for too long, so we headed back again the next day for a short walk. Twinkie loves jumping/people-watching in high places, so he somehow managed to find his way to the top of this rock. I’m convinced it’s so that he can get on the same eye level as us.

A small stream that we found a little ways off the main hiking path.

Dad packed us some baked potatoes, which we had for snack. Twinkie’s waiting for his portion too.

THIS IS THE CUTEST PICTURE. EVER. SO MUCH LOVE. AHH my heart is bursting.

With Earth Day coming up, I figured this was a good time to share the rest of my travel photos from the beautiful California. There’s nothing like spending time with your loved ones or even by yourself just enjoying nature and just taking time away from the materialistic things of our everyday lives and our little bubbles that we get so wrapped up in. This Earth is so precious, treat it well and appreciate its beauty every day.

“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” ~John Muir